CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Ronchamp it runs 421 km to Ronchamp; allow about 8 h 17 of riding. The stops in between: Grand Ventron, La Manufacture à Saint- Dié, La place forte de Neuf-Brisach and back through La Manufacture à Saint- Dié. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
For about 71 km this is Route des Cretes, Vosges, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it — expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
This part of the ride is 82 km of Route des Vins d'Alsace.
Notre-Dame-du-Haut sits on a hill above Ronchamp, at the foot of the Vosges, and it is one of the strangest and most beautiful buildings of the twentieth century. Le Corbusier designed it in the early 1950s and it was consecrated in 1955. The white walls curve and lean, the roof sweeps up like a hull or a hat, and the thick walls are pierced by small deep windows filled with coloured glass. Inside, light falls in coloured pools on the floor, and the whole room feels carved rather than built. There has been a pilgrim chapel on this hill for centuries, and the earlier church was destroyed in the war, which is what led to the commission.
Read the complete Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Haut de Ronchamp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Haut de Ronchamp is where the day begins. Next is Grand Ventron.
At around 1,200 metres, the Grand Ventron is one of the high rounded summits on the main crest of the southern Vosges, where Lorraine meets Alsace. To the west lie the valleys of La Bresse and Ventron; to the east the ground falls steeply into the Thur valley above Kruth. The top is open, grassy and wind combed, a classic Vosges hautes-chaumes landscape of summer pastures, bilberry and granite boulders, with beech and fir forest closing in below. On a clear day the view runs across the Alsace plain to the Black Forest, and on rare exceptional days the Alps show as a pale line far to the south.
Read the complete Grand Ventron write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Grand Ventron comes up about 58 km into the recorded legs. Next is La Manufacture à Saint- Dié.
Le Corbusier designed only one factory in his long career, and it stands in Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, a town in the Meurthe valley on the western side of the Vosges mountains. The Manufacture Claude et Duval, a hosiery factory built between 1946 and 1951, is a concrete block raised on pilotis, with a roof terrace and brightly coloured interiors, and it embodies many of the architect's principles. It was part of his plans for the reconstruction of Saint-Dié after the town was largely destroyed by the retreating German army in November 1944, though most of his grand urban plan was never built. In 2016, the factory was included in the UNESCO listing of the architectural work of Le Corbusier, alongside buildings in seven countries.
Read the complete La Manufacture à Saint- Dié write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 129 km into the recorded legs you reach La Manufacture à Saint- Dié. Next is La place forte de Neuf-Brisach.
After the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697, France had to give the fortress of Breisach, on the right bank of the Rhine, back to the Habsburgs, and Louis XIV needed a new stronghold to guard the river. His engineer Vauban designed it from scratch on an empty plain on the left bank: Neuf-Brisach, a perfect octagon of walls, bastions and moats, with a grid of streets inside and a large central square with a church and a parade ground. Built between 1698 and the early eighteenth century, it was Vauban's last great work and is often considered his masterpiece. It is one of the twelve groups of Fortifications of Vauban, listed by UNESCO in 2008.
Read the complete La place forte de Neuf-Brisach write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
La place forte de Neuf-Brisach, about halfway. Next is back through La Manufacture à Saint- Dié.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete La Manufacture à Saint- Dié write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through La Manufacture à Saint- Dié sits at 227 km, about halfway. Next is back through Grand Ventron.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Grand Ventron write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Grand Ventron comes up about 362 km into the recorded legs. Next is Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Haut de Ronchamp.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Haut de Ronchamp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Haut de Ronchamp closes the day.
Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Haut de Ronchamp → Grand Ventron is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Grand Ventron → La Manufacture à Saint- Dié is 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
La Manufacture à Saint- Dié → La place forte de Neuf-Brisach is 82 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
La place forte de Neuf-Brisach → back through La Manufacture à Saint- Dié is 81 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through La Manufacture à Saint- Dié → back through Grand Ventron is 70 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Grand Ventron → Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Haut de Ronchamp is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.